A Car Blog. Only Angrier

Thursday, June 28, 2007

Honda Azera

Jalopnik reports: Spy Photos: 2008 Honda Accord. Dammit, come on, Honda. We expect more from you. And this isn't a knock on Hyundai ('cause they are kicking arse all over the place), it's more an issue with the lack of imagination from the folks at Honda. They've done such a great job with the Civic, Fit and CR-V (which is hellasnazzy) that we're quite disappointed in the Accord. At least from the pics we've seen. At a quick glance. While we were busy.

I understand Hyundai is now manufacturing wind up music box movements for the trade. They already build dumb pianos and guitars. The musical box movements are supposed to compete with Sankyo musical movements. What's next: factory installed, built in wind up music boxes in Hyundais!

I agree in part with your original statement. The new Accord certainly does look like a Hyundai, but I think it has more of a resemblence to the current Sonata than the Azera. Having recently driven the Sonata, Azera, Accord, and TL, I can say that Hyundai is definitely catching up to Honda, at least in initial quality. That fact alone should be pushing Honda to separate itself from the Korean offerings not blend in with them, especially if they still expect to get the $3k to $5k premium over similar Hyundais'.

For what it's worth, after driving all four cars I chose a black on black Azera.